VIDLINGS & TAPEHEADS FILM FESTIVAL 2021
OCTOBER 22 & 23, 2021 (with VIP Filmmaker events on 10/24)
Ant Hall & Ghost Light, 2320 Caniff Avenue, Hamtramck, MI
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22ND, 2021
7:00PM Doors • VTFF2021 Kickoff
8:00PM Vidlings & Tapeheads Encore Encore!
Approx. 80 mins
This is exciting as fuck—join us for a program of amazing short films selected from the first three years of the Vidlings & Tapeheads Festival!! Funny, irreverant, spooky, and bizarre—a perfect vibe for a Friday night in October!
Little Wonder (2:46)
A refreshing take on puppet sexuality and some vague meditation on the loneliness of death.
Directed by Jojo Carlman (website)
IT’S DAVE (7:58)
Jim’s normal life deteriorates into a nightmare that he has no control of. Literally.
Directed by Benjamin Armes
My Loyal Audience (12:23)
A socially insecure teenage girl begins to suspect that her most personal, embarrassing thoughts may not be as private as she had hoped.
Directed by Megan Seely (website)
Cake (9:22)
Eliza, a bisexual woman, tries to explore her sexuality within her marriage with her husband Thomas by surprise ordering a seemingly human female sex robot. But the sex robot is not the cure-all she had hoped for. Be careful what you wish for.
Directed by Anne Hu (website)
LARP: A Love Story (10:30)
An epically romantic and tragic courtship between two characters in a Live Action Role Play and its impact on their creators, in real life.
Directed by Summre Garber (facebook)
GODDAMMIT (8:00)
Glare from the setting Sun prompts three travelers to consider their place within the Universe. GODDAMMIT is a film that can best be described as “Carl Sagan meets Timothy Leary.”
Directed by Ryan Moser (website)
Nocturne (5:19)
At night the forest creatures gather to gamble, putting their innermost at stake.
Directed by Anne Breymann (website)
Sports Day (10:54)
A teenage girl is confronted with her inner demon when forced to lose her virginity on school’s sports day.
Directed by Lin Tu
The Rougaroux (2:10)
Take a midnight drive down a haunted highway to discover a southern werewolf: a rougaroux. Weaving Detroit, New Orleans, and dreamscape imagery, The Rougaroux constructs a fantastically twisted world where reality is in flux and fused with southern myth.
Directed by Ana Vincent (website)
Josephine and the Roach (14:41)
A woman. A cockroach. The course of true love never did crawl smooth.
Directed by Jonathon Langager
10:30PM Lee Cleaveland and the Lefthand Band
Lee Cleaveland is a one-handed guitar player and multi-instrumentalist based out of Detroit. Lee and the band draw influences from 50/60’s pop, folk, rock, and punk and is rich with catchy hooks and pop rock sensibilities for a bright, clean, and polished sound. leecleaveland.bandcamp.com
11:30PM Francis Decarlo and the Pneumatics
Detroit-based songwriter and musician. www.francisdecarlo.com @francispdecarlo
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23RD, 2021
11:30AM Doors • Good Morning Festival!
Wake up and enjoy some FREE DONUTS & BAGELS & COFFEE with us as we get the full day of the fest underway! This year we’re doing something diffrent with our shorts blocks. Instead of screening separate blocks based on category/genre (Made in Michigan, Documentary, Animation, and Fiction), we’ve made four program mixtapes with a blend of them all!! Honestly, it feels like something we should’ve been doing from the beginning—it’s just that kind of right.
12:30PM SHORTS BLOCK
Approx. 73 mins, followed by Q&A
The Smile I Wear (11:47)
Made in Michigan | Filmmaker in Attendance
An invisible man confronts a world obsessed with happiness to find his true self and save those he loves.
Directed by Antonio Corsi | https://www.640films.com/the-smile-i-wear
Lah gah (Letting go) (06:33)
Animation | Michigan Premiere
A dive into sunny childhood memories and emotional depths of loss and disappearance, trying to grasp what is not tangible.
Directed by Cécile Brun | http://lahgah.ch | @cecilebrun_animation
The Year That Passed (10:20)
Animation | Michigan Premiere | Filmmaker in Attendance
An animation about loss, trauma, addiction and togetherness. This narrative explores grief as a recurrent process, with its own unique setbacks and silver linings.
Directed by Grace Simmons | gracesimmonsart.com | @gracesimmons34
24 (02:40)
Animation | Michigan Premiere
24 is the animated retrospective of a young man born between different cultures, it depicts moments of memory through short vignettes of the past.
Directed by Brian Yulo Ng | https://www.thefourthchromatic.com | @brian_yulo_ng
Shade Guzzling (04:13)
Documentary | Michigan Premiere
Anke Ames’ attitude towards life is loving: people, music, ideas. Her last hospital residence was a couple of years ago. The doctors call it a bipolar disorder.
Directed by Ulrike Korbach | ulrikekorbach.eu | @ulrike korbach
Helfer (09:45)
Animation | Michigan Premiere
A young woman is struggling with anxiety and recurring nightmares. She seeks out a helper, who offers an alternative solution, but in the process she must confront her greatest fears.
Directed by Szöllősi Anna | https://www.facebook.com/helfershortfilm | @sz0ll0
Jay (08:00)
Made in Michigan | Michigan Premiere
As Jay plays a round of disc golf, he reveals candid stories of his military service and struggling with paranoid schizophrenia.
Directed by Ben Corona | @40ozfilms
Digging For Life (14:30)
Documentary | Michigan Premiere
Digging for Life is a documentary film about a Cameroonian man
who finds himself trapped as a slave digging for diamonds in Angola.
Directed by Joao Queiroga | diggingforlifefilm.com | @diggingforlifefilm
Happy Ending (04:45)
Documentary | Michigan Premiere
With real testimony from a Korean prostitute, this beautiful painted animation explores what it is like to be the subject of other people’s pleasure.
Directed by EunJu Ara Choi | https://vimeo.com/arachoi | @arachoi_artist
3:00PM SHORTS BLOCK
Approx. 80 mins, followed by Q&A
The Sinkhole (15:36)
Made in Michigan
The Sinkhole tells the story of an Iraqi grandfather’s disappearance into immigration detention and the simultaneous emergence of a sinkhole in the suburbs of Detroit.
Directed by Danya Abt | danyaabt.com | @abtitude
Mother’s Song (02:30)
Animation | Michigan Premiere
On the night of full moon Zelma discovers blood on her sheets and calls for help. Her mother and three Mythology Sirens rush in and educate her on how to be a woman.
Directed by Signe Baumane | https://www.myloveaffairwithmarriagemovie.com | https://www.facebook.com/MyLoveAffairWithMarriage
Gone (12:49)
Fiction
A bickering family on a road trip stops at a gas station. Murielle, the mother, insists on having the car washed.
Directed by Joan Bentosela | https://vimeo.com/joanbentosela
Atlas of the Cosmos (04:25)
Documentary | Michigan Premiere
Atlas of the Cosmos is a short documentary about my brother, who lives with down syndrome.
Directed by Moses Kaufmann | https://moseskaufmann.myportfolio.com | @percbuddy
Umbilical (07:00)
Animation
An animated documentary exploring how my mother’s abusive relationship shaped my own experiences in boarding school.
Directed by Danski Tang | danskitang.com | @ransdi
Miss You (10:26)
Documentary | Michigan Premiere | Filmmaker in Attendance
Miss You explores loss, memory and love through archival home movies and a decade’s worth of answering machine messages saved by the filmmaker’s mother. This film asks: What happens if we don’t let go of the past, and what does it mean to remember?
Directed by Ellie Lobovits | ellielobovits.com | @ellielobovits
Queen of the Sea (03:11)
Animation | Michigan Premiere | Filmmaker in Attendance
Saddened by the Mermaid Queen’s rejection, the reverse mermaid swims off and finds an old sea witch with a promise she can’t turn down.
Dedicated to my older sister, Melody Miller.
Directed by Selena Chea Miller | https://www.selenacheamiller.com | @selemiller_art
Herselves (08:58)
Documentary
Who were our mothers before they became our mothers? This is the question behind Kristy Choi’s experimental documentary film “Herselves,” which explores both who Choi’s mother was and who she could have been.
Directed by Kristy Choi | https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary/herselves-makes-motherhood-a-work-of-art
Playground (14:16)
Fiction | Michigan Premiere
A pandemic outbreak forces a teenage boy to clear out all the guests of his mother’s motel, but something seems to have stayed behind…
Directed by Lin Tu
5:00PM Lower Subplanes
Astral bluesrock out of Lake Orion.
5:30PM SHORTS BLOCK
Approx. 77 mins, followed by Q&A
Salvage (10:24)
Documentary | Michigan Premiere
Salvage is a short film about aesthetics, inequality, and the consequences of taste.
Directed by Christopher Boulton | https://filmfreeway.com/DocBoulton | @DocBoulton
The Hole in the Sky (03:29)
Animation | Michigan Premiere
Somewhere up there is the hole in the sky.
Directed by John Akre | www.johnakre.com | @johnmakre
PROJECTIONS: A Covid-Inspired Tale in 11 Parts (10:59)
Made in Michigan | Michigan Premiere | Filmmaker in Attendance
A collection of multi-media interactions with projected video addressing various aspects of the pandemic including isolation, substance abuse, self-esteem, dental hygiene, factory farming, evil and the military-industrial complex.
Directed by Michael Pfaendtner
The King of Rock ‘N Roll (05:59)
Fiction | Michigan Premiere
A struggling Elvis impersonator tries to overcome loneliness through his computer screen.
Directed by Louis Cedrone | jalopyfilm.com
Burnt (04:59)
Made in Michigan
After a mission goes wrong, two agents seek help from an underground Doctor and receive more than they expected.
Directed by Colton Fromhart | @outforlunchfilms
Replica (10:52)
Made in Michigan | Filmmaker in Attendance
A young woman attends a party under false pretenses that goes from bizarre to sinister.
Directed by Christopher Jarvis | https://www.christopherjarvis.net | @tangleformations
The Quiet (10:00)
Animation | Michigan Premiere
Silence is the most beautiful thing that exists in the universe.
Directed by Radheya Jegatheva | https://www.radheya.net | @radheya_j
White Horse (07:00)
Animation | Michigan Premiere
They say an accordion could never talk to a white horse.
Directed by Yujie Xu
The Coincidental Killing of a Cat by an Unworldly Tune (02:34)
Animation | Michigan Premiere
A cat wanders into a house where a mysterious musician plays a song that no mortal can bear to hear.
Directed by Maya Kurdoglu | thecoincidentalkilling.com | @zeykece @redundant_and_unnecessary
Out of Tune (09:37)
Fiction | Michigan Premiere
In an advanced society that worships a musical chord, a maintenance worker who tunes sonic shrines is thwarted by teen vandals. Built from the sound up, Out of Tune is a synesthetic meditation on tradition and iconoclasm, technological advancement amidst societal decline, and the nature of work.
Directed by Aaron With | aaronwith.com | https://www.facebook.com/OutOfTuneFilm
7:00PM Mixtape Listening & Pizza Party
Vidlings & Tapeheads Film Festival brings you musicians/music creators together with filmmakers through a digital mixtape featuring local and regional songs.
Pizza provided by Amicci’s Pizzzzzzaaaaa!!
8:00PM SHORTS BLOCK
Approx. 80 mins, followed by Q&A
Domicide (15:57)
Fiction | Michigan Premiere
Molly and Pete are fractured. A weekend away could be the cure-all they’re after.
Directed by Lucy Velik | www.onryeproductions.com | @onryeproduction
Lairs (01:36)
Animation | Michigan Premiere
Lairs, layers, liars: In this poetry film, hatred insidiously supplants a couple’s love.
Directed by Emma Penaz Eisner | https://vimeo.com/penazeisnerfilm | @penazeisnerfilm
Father Mary (07:21)
Fiction | Michigan Premiere
A priest has a meeting with someone from her past that really ruins her day.
Directed by Sarey Martin | secretartproject.com | @doctormonalisa
Nevermind! (14:07)
Fiction | Michigan Premiere
Ms. Schmidt-Kornsand and Mr. Berg like each other. Right?
Directed by Clara Jäschke, Daria Pantyukhova | @clarajaeschke | @itsdariapa
Yellow Bird (03:24)
Made in Michigan | Michigan Premiere
Two friends spend the day at a park.
Directed by Emma Fergusson
Birdsong (10:38)
Documentary | Michigan Premiere | Filmmaker in Attendance
Motherpigeon and Jason Trachtenburg, formerly of the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, stand up for bohemia and New York City’s birds.
Directed by Paul Szynol | https://www.itchydogfilms.com
Noah’s Song (02:57)
Animation | Michigan Premiere
Noah’s Song is an animation about a transgender man coming out to his partner.
Directed by Damian Bonito Zapien
Beats (07:19)
Fiction | Michigan Premiere
Newly engaged again, Steph gives her life’s blood to live the happily-ever-after that everyone around her appears to be enjoying.
Directed by Sara Lattis | https://www.saralattis.com/beats-film | @beatsthefilm | @sara.lattis
Wendy/Gigi (13:45)
Fiction | Michigan Premiere
All first days are shit. Join Wendy as she undergoes a seismic transformation in this wacky ensemble comedy directed by a former Dominatrix.
Directed by Anthony Misiano | schadenfrau.com | @the.instigatrix | @howdyanthony
The Falling Lovers (1:46)
Animation | Michigan Premiere
Two lovers are falling from the sky. They keep asking each other for things so they will have some buffers and won’t die when they hit the floor.
Directed by Chen-Yi Wu | https://chenyiwu1993.weebly.com | @chenyiwu_film
10:00PM • Closing Night Party • LIVE MUSIC
10:30PM Oblisk
Torchbearers of the early-90s shoegaze tradition with modern electronic elements. oblisk.bandcamp.com
11:30PM Zilched
Detroit, Michigan. Noise pop. zilchedmusic.bandcamp.com | @zilchedmusic
12:30AM Lulu Summerfield
Members of Ancient Language, Earth Engine, and Asklepius combine to form a Voltronesque Michigan Supergroup.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24TH, 2021
1:00PM Filmmakers & VIPs only | Award Ceremony Brunch & Excursion
